Bird from above, bird fom below
by HoshisamaValmor
Summary: Canon Divergence, Day 3 of Erwin week 2016. "You know what the books say, and they can be wrong or dated. Have you been there? How can we know how it is if we don't go there and find out? It's worth trying, isn't it?" Kid Erwin and kid Levi.


**Author's Note:** I know most people went for titan!Erwin and stuff, but I've been want to write something with Erwin and Levi as kids for a long while. This was meant to be the smallest of the prompts, but ah.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Shingeki no Kyojin.

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When his father first talked about it, Erwin's mind raced and wondered immediately. Was there really an underground city with no sky, no sun? Just remnants, alms of sunlight peeking through leaks on a rocky ceiling? How did people live under there? How would they be able to see at night? How did they look like? Would they look pale, tall, sickly and wry, like plants trying desperately to reach light?

"I'll tell you more later, Erwin." His father promised.

But he wanted more. Listening to the teacher's words only sparked more interest, and sooner rather than later he asked some friends if they knew any routes to the Underground. No one dared to accompany him, and as word began to spread amongst the children of Erwin's boldness, soon his father had heard it too.

Erwin was grounded for an afternoon.

"The Underground is not a good place, Erwin. People that live there try to come to the upper city, sometimes all their lives, for good reason. What if you got lost? How would I be able to find you? I'll tell you everything you want to know, but you can't attempt to do something so dangerous!"

"But how can you know, father? You know what the books say, and they can be wrong or dated. Have you been there? How can we know how it is if we don't go there and find out? It's worth trying, isn't it?" The blond child argued, curiosity wild.

Exasperated, his father tried to dissuade him with the knowledge he had, both good and bad, the struggles and the criminals that had thrived in the Underground, the perils a child would face alone.

"Maybe there's good people too. We won't know if we stay here."

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His father was right, but so was him.

The Underground _was_ scary. It was both different and similar to what he had imagined. During day time, it had thick and thin sunrays piercing eagerly from sparse spaces on the brown and ugly ceiling the people called sky. It didn't smell putrid or decaying, but the air was strange and heavy. The houses were dark, without the usual ceilings Erwin was used to, and the streets seemed smaller than up above. It was definately intimidating.

His sneaking had been an equal scaring thrill, when the soldier was surprised to catch a glimpse of someone small trying to get _down_ the stairs and not _up_. Erwin heard the shout, and carried on running before trying to join a crowd.

The Underground also had children like him. Not strange tilting creatures, just people. Some tall, others... slightly smaller.

"What the fuck are you looking at?"

...and ruder.

"You were trying to rob me. I'm trying to look at you and see why."

"Why what? Get your hands off while you're at it, too."

Erwin could see his father's worry. If there really were criminals around here, him alone wouldn't be able to stand a chance if they wanted to harm him. But instead of adults, whom so far had only glanced at Erwin's direction a couple of times, it had been this boy to try and attack him.

Erwin wasn't the strongest of his classmates, but he had enough built to be able to hold someone of them if they struggled. He certainly was older and stronger than the boy that had bumped at him in the street, this tiny kid wearing a shirt that looked equally stolen. Erwin realized the action meant to steal money he didn't have, and acted in reflex, much to the other boy's surprise. Probably thought he would be an easy target.

"You live here, right?" Erwin's eyes shined and he smiled from excitement over his simple discovery.

The small boy frowned and squinted, mix of confusion and annoyance. His face was smudged by an ugly bruise unlike one Erwin had seen on anyone's face before. Before he felt compassion, Erwin actually felt more curious. _'What had happened?'_. Only then did he realize how painful that must have been.

"You're hurt, did you fall?"

Rather than reply, the boy tried to jolt away from Erwin, but his grip around the frail wrist was only replaced by one locked on his shirt.

"Wait!"

"Let me go, you're creepy. You'll dirty my shirt!"

Erwin blinked at that. _He_ was creepy?

"I want to talk to you. You live here! Can you answer me some things?"

"Who the hell are you?" The boy snorted, now starting to get angry over Erwin's holding. "I've said, let go or I'll stab you."

"You were here alone, I thought it was dangerous for children to be," Erwin asked, ignoring the threat.

"Where the fuck did you come from? Did your mommy and daddy loose you on the way down here, huh?"

"I wanted to see the Underground," Erwin insisted, trying to establish pacific communication over any sense of spite. This child was a just a boy like him. Small, yes, and indeed pale and not too healthy looking, a contrast with his toned skin and light hair. Erwin's enthusiasm was past any fear he might have felt. "And I'm not here with my father, I just wanted to know. Please, you shouldn't be so mocking over him or my mother. She's dead."

Erwin didn't exactly filter the words. Some vague part of his memory brought the mention that there were lots of orphans in the Underground, and mention of parents could either enrage or sadden them. But it wasn't like Erwin was the one to bring up the subject.

The boy reacted either way. His eyes widdened slightly and he stopped struggling.

"Well, you guys up there have that too, huh? Good for you."

He was blunt.

"I'm sorry about your mother. It's not... a good thing. My name is Erwin. I didn't mean to hurt you, but you did try to rob me."

THe boy sneered and snorted.

"Let go. I'm serious, I'll stab you."

"If you were, you could have had already."

The boy's lip trembled slightly. Erwin wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a snarl or a grin.

"You really aren't from around here. Why the hell would you run and come down the stairs?"

Rather than repeat, Erwin pointed to his face. "What happened? That looks painful. Did you fell down?"

"' _Fell down'_? Do I look like I fucking fall down?"

Erwin swallowed a reproof on the language.

"I didn't dodge a punch. Fucking MPs are too chicken to hit a kid without packing around."

"MPs? You mean military police?" Erwin's grip loosened then. The boy didn't run. "Why would they hit a child?"

A shrug. "That's what they do."

That didn't make sense. Erwin thought the military were meant to help.

"Did they think you were trying to steal something?" Hardly worth a reason to beat someone so small that badly, but Erwin was trying to acess the situation and gain knowledge on how differently this under ground world was from his own, just some meters above.

"MPs are the same everywhere," the boy snorted, as if he had heard Erwin's thoughts. "I did try to snatch one of their gears, so."

"3DMG? But, you're too small, you would never fit."

'That' was a dangerous look, enough for Erwin to finally register it.

"You can fly with that thing."

"You can, indeed. It must be really cool, right?"

It was the boy's turn to blink, slowly and calculatedly.

"Yeah. But you're from above there, you can dream to fly and go outside. I have to work a lot harder for that."

"You're just a boy like me. It shouldn't be like that. If you tell me more about the Underground, I can try and bring you up with me and tell you about my town, too," Erwin suggested, naive but good intentioned.

The boy snorted again, but somehow Erwin knew the boy wasn't taking him for a liar. So Erwin tried again.

"My name's Erwin. What's yours?"

He raised his hand towards the boy. The other looked down at it and up at the tall blue eyes, and despite the lighter expression, he just jerked his shirt straight and lifted his chin without so much as trying to shake hands.

"Name's Levi."

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 **Author's Note:** I literally have no more time to type. Hope this was something reasonable. The setting kind of reminds me of 'The Boy with Stripped Pajamas'

May I suggest you read my fic 'Once', which is the canon first meeting of Erwin and Levi following Erwin's perspective!

Thanks for reading, if you have anything to say please do.


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